Hit the road for a "One-Tank Trip" around Southern Ontario.
Adventures worth the drive from the syndicated newspaper/web column by Jim Fox

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Sunday, May 29, 2016

Hit a homerun with a garden show and baseball in St. Marys, Ontario

One-Tank Trip for
May 28/16

(c) By Jim Fox

St. Marys is the
place to take home the sweet and succulent Bonnie Best or Cosmonaut Volkov
while not striking out on a fun visit.

Bonnie and the Cos
are two of some 15 varieties of heirloom tomatoes available at the St. Marys
Horticultural Society’s Garden Fair on June 4.

Other varieties
with “diverse and crazy names” are Trophy, Bloody Butcher and Indigo Blue
Berries, said the society’s Ann Pedley.

The town, at the
junction of the Thames River and Trout Creek southwest of Stratford, is also home
to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum.

There will be a
street festival on June 18 along with the 2016 Induction Ceremony at the hall.

The 19th annual
Garden Fair in the picturesque town is held at Milt Dunnell Field, commonly
known as “The Flats,” and is where baseball was played as early as 1860.

As a major society fund-raiser,
the fair has more than 20 vendors “with everything from hanging baskets to
birdhouses, lots of unique perennials and shrubs and all kinds of garden decor,”
Pedley said.

Master gardeners
will be in attendance to answer questions and coconut coir that’s beneficial to
replace peat moss in garden beds is available for sale.

Four society
members grow more than 500 heirloom tomatoes “that have become extremely
popular, usually selling out early in the day,” Pedley said.

Admission and
parking are free and refreshments are available at the park.

“The fair runs from
8:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., leaving lots of time after to explore our lovely town and
shops, including a great gardening store, Castle Garden, and perhaps have a
bite to eat in one of our many restaurants,” Pedley added.

St. Marys is known
as the “Stone Town” in recognition of the abundance of limestone used in the
construction of many of the buildings and structures.

It’s also full of
history as it is where the late Arthur Meighen, Canada’s ninth prime minister,
went to school and where Timothy Eaton, one of the country’s greatest
retailers, opened his first business.

The Canadian
Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum (386 Church St. S.) has been in St. Marys
since 1998 after leaving its original home in Toronto.

Fittingly, it’s just
south of Beachville where the first recorded game of baseball was played in
North America on June 4, 1838.

It pays tribute to
Canada’s rich history of the game, with thousands of artifacts in the museum.

This includes Fergie
Jenkins and Larry Walker memorabilia, artifacts from Canada’s two major league
franchises – the Toronto Blue Jays and Montreal Expos – and a Babe Ruth
collection.

Uniforms worn by
the All-American Girls Professional Baseball league from 1943 to 1954 are at
the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum. (Jim Fox photo)

There is also a
large display on the current Major League Baseball (MLB) players from Canada along
with a tribute to the Canadian women who played in the All-American Girls
Professional Baseball League.

Developed on the
site since 1998 are four ballfields that host more than 900 events a year, including
MLB tryout camps and the World Junior Championship exhibition games.

The hall’s induction
event is now a three-day festival, starting with the Celebrity Homerun Derby
and ballgame on June 16, Celebrity Golf Classic and banquet, June 17, and the
Baseball Family Street Festival and Induction Ceremony on June 18.

The free festival
starts at 9 a.m. and runs until noon in the downtown and activities include
bouncy houses, slides and castles, a radar gun to check pitching speeds, face
painters, balloon animal artists, music and Toronto Blue Jays alumni signing
autographs.